Name: Ronnie Levin, M.A. Instructor, Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health

Short Bio:  Ronnie Levin retired from EPA after almost 38 years.  She is now at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health, where she teaches and conducts research.  Both while at EPA and at HSPH, Ronnie has been instrumental in the federal regulation of lead in drinking water.  She also contributed significantly to changes in drinking water practices related to turbidity and disinfection.

Abstract: In 1991, EPA issued regulations controlling lead contamination of drinking water.  Based on Ronnie Levin’s significant EPA analysis in 1986, the regulation focused on corrosion control to reduce lead leaching into the water that reaches residents.  In 2021, EPA announced plans to slightly revise the 1991 rule, including to encourage replacing almost 500,000 lead pipes.  EPA’s cost-benefit analysis to justify the new rule monetized only 1 health endpoint of the almost 20 health effects EPA has determined are causally related to lead exposure; EPA estimated a cost-benefit ratio of barely 2:1. Using EPA’s estimates of current water treatment behaviors and capacity, water lead levels (WLLs), blood lead levels (BLLs) and distribution (BLLD); and EPA’s anticipated changes in water treatment, changes in WLLs, changes in BLLs, change in BLLD, and resulting anticipated change in IQs to isolate its assessment of the contribution of lead pipes to current WLLs/BLLs, Ronnie estimated and monetized the health damages from most of the other health effects that EPA considers caused by lead exposure; the estimated cost-benefit ratio was 35:1 to 51:1. The present value benefit of replacing a single lead pipe was $85,000 over 35 years compared to one-time replacement cost of $4,000-5,000.  On the basis of Ronnie’s alternative cost-benefit analysis, in 2023 EPA proposed to require the replacement of all remaining 9 million lead pipes, to reduce the replacement time from 30 years to 10, and to further reduce the allowable level of lead in drinking water from 15 ppb to 10 ppb.